Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Kade
‘The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.’- The Iliad, Homer.
As I watch Isabelle rush away that quote plays through my mind.
My mother taught it to me. From time to time she’d drop lines from ancient Greek philosophers and call them pearls of wisdom.
That quote came to me the moment I touched Isabelle, saw her fear rippling through her pulse on her elegant neck, and felt her lush body pressed up against mine.
I watch her until she gets through the bushes and disappears, and even then I keep watching.
Watching as I process the results of what we just did. What I just did.
That was the first act of war. Riding out to meet the enemy and stating your claim.
I could have easily given her the answer she wanted and told her what I have against her, but I didn’t want to.
I don’t want to give her the chance to not be my enemy and I don’t want her sorrow.
Having either of those things would come in direct conflict with my plans to make her suffer.
Besides that, the psychological impact of trying to figure something out that is impossible to figure can drive a person crazy. The not knowing, the incessant wondering, and the inability to figure it out wears your mind down and eventually becomes torture.
That’s what I went through until I knew the truth about who attacked my parents. It seems fair that prim and proper Isabelle should get a taste of insanity.
I’ll also admit that the demented side of me liked watching her squirm way too much to taint this plot of mine and do anything other than what I’m doing.
I like the way she felt in my arms. I liked the way her body molded to mine and fit me. I liked her smell, the silky feel of her skin, and that scent of roses laced within her terror.
Tonight was the first time I’ve ever touched her.
I could get used to it. But she’s leaving.
Clever move. Clever girl . Of course, I know she got her scholarship, but I know her. When you study people the way I do, you see straight through them. So I know that regardless of the opportunity to be at Cambridge, the doll wants to leave Raventhorn because she doesn’t feel safe here anymore.
It was clear in the way she freaked out even before my friends and I made our presence known.
We’d been watching her from when she was in the art studio and saw the frightened state she was in the entire time she was there.
That got worse when she left, although I’m sure she must have walked that same path over a hundred times since we started college.
Tonight she was super freaked out. Because of me.
Going to Cambridge on a scholarship program is one hell of an achievement. There’s just one small problem.
I’m not letting her go.
I don’t know what I’m going to do yet but I’ll think of something. I always do.
“That was fun.” Dmitri chuckles, pulling me from my reverie.
“When do we get to play with her again?” Logan comes closer.
I look from one to the other, feeling my blood heat. They had too much fun with her and got too close for comfort. It made me wonder what they would have done if I weren’t here. I loathed it even more that as scared as Isabelle was, I knew part of her liked the attention.
“Sorry, boys. That was it.” I keep my tone even and measured to mask my irritation.
They give me an incredulous glare.
“You’re serious? That was it?” Logan clenches his jaw.
“That was it.” They won’t touch her again.
Any man with eyes would be attracted to Isabelle Kolyav. Those same men would do their best to get with her, but my friends aren’t going to do it on my watch.
Dmitri and Logan also like sharing girls. I don’t share like that. And I will never share her .
“We were just getting warmed up.” Dmitri takes off his skull mask and tucks it under his arm.
“Exactly. So I’ll take it from here.”
Dmitri smirks, catching my meaning. “As you wish, boss .”
I give him a clipped smile. He likes the idea of messing around with Isabelle, but that’s because he can’t have who he wants.
He’s never told me this but I know he has a thing for Mackenzie. He just won’t touch her because of the feud between their families. He won’t risk pissing off his asshole father who has always compared him to his brother.
“What are you going to do with her now? She’ll be curious.”
“I’ll play it by ear.” I glance back to the bushes, staring at the empty path as if I can still see her there.
“And the Malina snitch?” Logan asks with a wicked smile.
The snitch is the first on my list to eliminate. “Now that’s where the real fun begins. Tomorrow night we’ll kick his ass and destroy his drug den.”
“Alright.” Logan and Dmitri high-five each other and I grin back at them.
That drug den brings in half a million a week. It will be the perfect first move to light a fire under Nickoli’s ass. The best part is he won’t know who started it.
“You’re going to need those masks.”
We used to wear those skull masks at Halloween when I moved up to New York. They were perfect for getting up to all kinds of trouble.
It was Dmitri’s idea to resurrect them. They worked well to scare Isabelle and we’ll make use of them again tonight to scare the real bad guys.
I have everyone exactly where I need them to be.
Especially the girl.
I can’t wait to make my next move.
Sunlight streams through the large windows, highlighting the dust particles that dance in the high beams of the training room.
Thorne raises his bo staff into the air, his stance solid and centered. I do the same with mine, stepping forward, getting ready to strike.
We’ve been doing a Kung Fu-based training every morning at five a.m. for the last three weeks.
We train for an hour, fighting with everything we have.
Thorne strikes, flipping his staff around his body at lightning speed before thrusting it toward me.
I evade, surprising him like I did yesterday.
All these weeks of training and it was only then that I was fast enough to move out of his way.
He almost smiles and I feel a sense of hope spark inside me. I can see in his eyes that he thinks I’ve improved.
That’s a big deal. Thorne Ivanov is one of the best fighters I’ve ever come across.
The wooden floor creaks under his feet as he advances forward with a series of quick strikes. I counter each one with my staff, feeling the impact reverberate through my upper body. The exchange is fast, almost too fast to track, each of us testing the other's defenses and reflexes. His movements are sharp and precise, a testament to years of disciplined training.
I am the student humbling himself in front of the master so I can learn from him. To be him . And better.
“Motherfucker.” He grins. “This is getting too easy for you.”
“Maybe. Or I’m getting better than you.”
“Nice try. No one is better than me.”
He’s right, but I want to prove him wrong one day. “I’m on your tail, Ivanov. From where I’m standing, I’m not that much different from you.”
He roars with laughter. “Like fuck. Let’s see about that.”
He thrusts his staff into my stomach. Serves me right. I got too cocky and that made me comfortable.
Thorne laughs again and twirls the staff in the air like it’s little more than a baton. “Fight like a man, Kade. Come and get me and stop dicking around.”
I do.
He strikes and I counter with a spinning kick. He blocks and responds with a sweeping low kick that I evade by jumping into a backflip.
Then we go all out.
I imagine that we would both look impressive to anyone watching us. We’re of similar height and built, but I carry that football player muscle that should weigh me down. It never has.
Fighting makes me incredibly light on my feet and that’s what makes me good at football.
Fighting like this helps me to know the limits of my body down to the bone and beyond, so I can push them.
That’s why I’m training with Thorne.
At Raventhorn Academy the guys are combat trained to master seven styles of martial arts. It’s mandatory even if you choose to become a librarian.
The Knights are about power and strength so all men who join them must be trained for war.
The Reaping is the first ritual every sixteen-year-old boy must undertake in order to become a Knight.
I barely made it through. It was like being tossed into a scene from Apocalypse Now .
I also wasn’t myself because I’d just lost my parents months before.
Thorne trained the unit last semester for the Reckoning. The second worst ritual you have to pass to become a Knight.
I passed that with flying colors. By then I was on track to finding out who killed my parents. That gave me the fire to keep going and get even stronger.
When I realized I was up against the Malina, and Nickoli in particular, I knew I needed to do more.
Thorne always held back when he was training us, yet he wiped the floor with us and made us all—even me—look like a bunch of pussies.
I asked him to give me more training because I knew it would give me the best chance of fulfilling my plans if he did.
I don’t know what’s going to happen down the line, but I know I need to be strong for whatever comes at me.
Thorne has that inner strength I covet. He has no off switch because he knows he’s practically invincible.
I come from Spartan blood. Now it’s time for me to act like it.
Our sparring continues, an intricate play of attack and defense, but it sadly ends when he knocks me off my feet and I find myself flat on my back with his staff between my eyes.
One blow to my head and I’d be dead.
“Lesson over, padawan.” A smug smile drifts over his face.
I flip myself up and breathe out a haggard sigh.
“How do you think you did?” He sets his staff down and grabs a towel from the bench.
“You tell me.” I already know he’s not going to answer that the way I want but I say it anyway.
“You know that’s not how this works. Only you know how good or bad you are.”
“Sure, but can’t you give me something?”
“You’re in my elite. You wouldn’t be there if I didn’t think you had the capability. This is different. You tell me when you think you’re ready.”
I only have one answer for that. “When I kick your ass.”
He smirks and gives me a sidelong stare. “Then you have a fuck of a long way to go.”
That’s not the answer I was hoping for but I appreciate it.
He could tell I’m good or that I’m getting better, but it won’t help me to hear what I want to hear.
He walks over to the cooler, grabs two bottles of water and tosses me one. “These people of yours must be real hardcore.”
“They are.”
He opens his water and stares at me with scrutiny while he drinks.
Thorne doesn’t know that my people —as he put it—are the Malina. I didn’t tell him that part. He’s only helping me because he knows I want justice for my parents. Telling him that I found the people responsible for their deaths was enough for him to agree to help me without knowing anything more. But I know he’s curious.
He wants to know details. I wish I could, but telling him more would mean jeopardizing my plans. Thorne is a Knight and my superior. If he knew I was planning to go up against a known enemy of the Knights, who are likely to kill me, it would be his duty to stop me and report me.
He might want to continue helping me but his duty is to the Knights first.
In the same vein, Thorne is no fool. He knows I’m up to illegal shit. He also knows what he’ll have to do if he learns the specifics of what I’m doing. That’s why he’s opted not to ask me too much. Only the stuff he needs to know.
“Have you come up against them yet?” He sets the water down and places a towel around his shoulders.
“Not yet, but soon.”
He levels me a hard stare. “I hope you and your boys will be ready.”
The other day he guessed that Dmitri and Logan would be right alongside me doing whatever I need them to do, but he doesn’t know the limits I’ve set.
“When we get to that stage it will be just me,” I reply, feeling it’s okay to tell him that part.
“Everyone needs backup. No matter how big or small the enemy.”
“I can’t have backup for this. I won’t put anyone’s life at risk.”
“I see.” He nods with approval. “Sounds like suicide. I'm not training you for a suicide mission, am I, Kade?”
I smile back at him. “Rest assured I don’t plan on dying any time soon, just collecting a few heads.”
“Okay. We’ll do something a little different tomorrow. Something harder. I was thinking we’ll go up to the mountain if you’re game.”
“I’m definitely game.”
“Good. Because that’s where I did most of my training.”
“Then that’s what I need to do.”
The mountain he’s referring to is where we did the Reckoning. The terrain there, especially at this time of year, is perfect for training and acquiring the mental and physical toughness I need.
I stare at him for a moment, wanting to ask him a question that’s been on my mind since he discovered who killed his family. I’ve held off asking because it felt inappropriate. Like I’d be crossing a line.
I don’t know Thorne as well as many of the others. He’s two years ahead of me, so when I started Raventhorn Academy he’d already left for college.
“What?” He gives me a narrowed stare.
“How does it feel? How does it feel to get the justice you wanted for your family?”
His father, mother and older sister were all taken from him in one night. Just like that, they were gone. Just like mine.
“It feels like freedom. There’s always going to be that dark cloud because I can’t bring them back but something in me feels right again. Like I did right by them and myself. Now I can live the life they wanted me to have.”
I nod, hoping that one day soon I’ll experience that same feeling. Everything has felt wrong for me since the night my parents died. It would be good to feel right again.
The door to the training room opens slowly and Annika pokes her blonde head in.
She always comes down here to meet Thorne when we finish training. On seeing her Thorne’s expression softens; it’s like he becomes a different person. The hard man fades and his eyes fill with adoration.
I don’t usually take notice of people in love, but with him— and her —it’s difficult not to notice.
Annika acknowledges us both with a smile—even though she doesn’t like me. That’s because of Isabelle. It’s understandable, so it doesn’t bother me.
“Hey guys, hope I didn’t interrupt,” she says sweetly, her eyes on Thorne.
“No, Bambi. We’re done here.” Thorne turns back to me and throws a punch in my arm. “Get out. My wife’s here.”
He marches away, not even waiting for me to answer.
Annika isn’t his wife yet but he started calling her that just before the holidays, and made sure everyone heard him so they knew she was his.
It’s strange seeing him this way.
I steal a moment to watch them and I wonder about the other question on my mind.
Annika’s family was responsible for killing Thorne’s parents and sister. He’s never harbored any ill feelings toward her. Not even a little bit.
I’m not sure I could be the same way. But then none of what happened was anything to do with her. She was an innocent and her hands were clean, not dirty like her friend Isabelle's.
I wonder what either of them would think of sweet Isabelle if they knew she helped the Malina kill my family.
Would they still think of her as sweet and innocent?
Maybe.
She has so many eating out of the palms of her hands that they’d see her mistake and think of me as the devil because I want her to pay.
With a shake of my head I leave, and count down the hours until tonight.